Hommel Bier | Perennial Artisan Ales

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a delightful little beer here, a clever take on an underwhelming Americanized style. this pours like champagne, clear light yellow and very brightly carbonated. its got a semisweet nose, with touches of honey and clover meadow cascading my senses. Belgian yeast more like a witbier than a pale, and just the right amount of hops to be sassy without being bold or brash. the taste is exactly as I described the nose, with some almost wild yeast elements creeping in, and more of the honey flavor without the sugar on the finish, fully fermented by what appears to be a very active and powerful strain of Belgian yeast. the feel is a little out of place, carbonated like a brut and finishing dry, its unexpectedly light in that way, and almost rushes me through the flavor journey. its super light and drinkable, especially at under 6% abv, but I would have liked the feel to be just a bit more relaxed. still, its just right for summer drinking, and is a great introduction to perennial ales for me. I will absolutely look forward to drinking more of their stuff and visiting their brewery my next pass through the gateway city.

Thanks to Lukahn (Reddit) for this interesting looking guy. This could be a big winner for me, or a let down, but we'll see.

I tried to pour carefully at first and at first it looked like it was doing OK, but suddenly it hits the uneven point in the neck and starts gurgling out of the mouth into big blotches in the glass and forces a huge fluffy 2 finger head. The head fades at a med pace with pot-marks, and lots of sticky lacing, leaving a billowy Belgian looking head that makes my nuts tingle. The beer underneath the pillowy head is a semi clear semi hazy tangerine orange-reddish colored, what I suspect is beer.

The nose has a really interesting blend of what it should, the nice Belgian yeast aromas and light hops. The malts are also there somewhere, hiding in the back in poor fashion like a 5 year old playing Hide and Seek and his entire torso is sticking out, with a light sweet reddish malt that wants to be behind the hops and yeast additions but is still in the foreground. However, the Belgian yeast takes the stage, with nice floral light spices, mild fruity esters, and a light fruity pear like aroma. the hops are also there to tickle the nose, with light floral notes, hints of a spicy beast underneath, and touch of a grassy demeanor. Nice balance between all of the above, and glad they didn't kick the booze up as that would upset the nice balance.

As it swishes into my mouth thoughts of fruit come to mind, it's fairly fruity overall, again yeast additions nicely come through. Whoa, waves of lots more flavors I can't put down on paper (or keyboard) fast enough so lets go quick with initial tastes, malts, floral hops, light earthy, floral yeast additions, etc. So the fruity flavors came in first wave as I mentioned before, light pear and almost apricot like fruit. The yeast also brings mild esters and hints of floral spices, earthy spices. The hops kick in quickly next overpowering the fruit, with a floral hop at first, then some grassy flavors with a hint of a spicy complexion, and even a light earthy hop touch. They even add a light hop oil feel. Malts take the rear again, with light sweet malts, golden Belgian like malts, and a juicy reddish almost caramel like malt. The finish gets slightly dry but stays a bit sticky sweet and gritty on the mouth, as the hops ramp up slightly with a bit more lupulin taste and earthy floral hops, and touch of the Belgian fruits and esters lingering all together, but not for too long.

Mouth is med bodied but a bit abrasive, tons of carbonation enough that surprises me it didn't overflow a bit when I popped the top, cause once you pop you can't stop... the flow of the overcarbonated beer.

Overall, again balanced fairly well with a lighter overall feel so that it doesn't get bogged down in booze and malty sweetness. A nice summer sipper that's full of flavor and softness, balance, etc. Nice malts that know their place, nice ester and floral additions from the yeast, and good hops to balance. Glad they didn't try to overpower any of the flavors, hops, malts, booze, sweetness, wrong yeast flavors, etc, even the esters weren't heavy. Nice job.